WASHINGTON (September 28, 2012) – The Urban Land Institute (ULI) Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership has named Mayor Lee Leffingwell, of Austin, Texas along with three other mayors of major U.S. cities to serve in fellowships for the Center through 2013. Leffingwell’s local team will join those led by the mayors of Hartford, Connecticut; Louisville, Kentucky; and Tacoma, Washington. The purpose of the fellowship program is to provide city leaders with the insights, peer-to-peer learning, and analysis needed to successfully build and sustain their cities.

“Mayor Leffingwell has demonstrated his commitment to smart land use and aggressive economic development for the city of Austin,” said ULI Chief Executive Officer Patrick L. Phillips. “We expect that the Austin team will use their year in the Daniel Rose Fellowship to continue this path of harnessing the city’s entrepreneurial spirit to create future opportunities for investment.”

“This is a great opportunity for our city,” said Mayor Leffingwell. “We are eager to tap into ULI’s team of experts and learn from our peers in other cities to help develop strategies to address our local transit issues.”

The Austin team will work with the other selected mayors and their respective teams to address the most challenging land use issues facing their communities. Over the fellowship year, Leffingwell and his team will work with leading experts in the real estate development, finance, urban design and land use fields.

Austin’s other 2012-13 ULI Daniel Rose Fellowship team members are as follows:

• Chris Riley, Austin City Council Member, Place 1
• Rodney Gonzales, Deputy Director of the Economic Growth and Redevelopment Services Office
• Terry Mitchell, President of Momark Development, LLC

The fellowship team will be assisted Amy Everhart, Director of Policy for the Mayor’s Office.

The Daniel Rose Fellowship is the flagship program of the ULI Daniel Rose Center, established in 2008 by the ULI Foundation Governor Daniel Rose. The Center aims to empower leaders in the public sector to envision, build and sustain successful 21st century communities by providing access to information, best practices, peer networks and other resources to foster creative, efficient and sustainable land use practices.

According to Rose, the Center is unique in how it facilitates collaboration among leaders in land use “by bringing competent, honorable and knowledgeable” participants together from the public and private sector. Leaders explore community and development issues, while discussing solutions to regional land use problems. “Each has much to learn from the other. The more knowledgeable and better trained people are on both sides of the table, the more effective they (the working relationships) are. The most successful projects invariably reflect those relationships,” he said.

The 2012-13 Daniel Rose Fellows serve as the fourth class of the program, with each fellowship class serving a one-year term. The selection of fellows begins with the nomination of four city mayors. Each mayor then nominates three additional fellows to serve on their city’s fellowship team. The mayors’ team members are chosen from many fields including: city department heads, city managers, deputy mayors, chief executives of quasi-governmental agencies, executive directors of not-for-profit institutions, senior decision-makers at universities or other institutions with significant land use impacts, and leaders of appointed planning commissions.

About the Urban Land Institute
The Urban Land Institute (www.uli.org) is a nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the Institute has nearly 30,000 members worldwide representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines.